Raffaele Capuana was born in 1947 in Carlentini, in Catania province, the youngest of three children. Her father Santi painted for passion but her mother Luigia decides to leave Sicily and move to Milan to remove her children from a difficult relationship with her husband. Raffaele suffers a lot for this estrangement from his father to whom he will remain tied for life. In Milan, Raffaele attended school up to the eighth grade, spontaneously starting to paint. In 1967, during his military service, he began to show mental problems. In 1968 he found work at the post office and he got married. He has two sons. He works during the day painting at night but the deprivation of sleep worsens his state of health. In 1980 he enrolled in a drawing course for amateur painters at the Brera Academy. He lives and works in a basement in Sesto San Giovanni, his marriage is in crisis. Even if the instability will characterize his extramarital affairs. In 1994 he retired early to devote himself full time to painting but he was forced to leave his beloved home-studio to move to Cusano Milanino. In the move, many of his paintings are lost. First the divorce, then a series of painful events hit Capuana: the death of his mother, of his second son Tiziano and his brother Salvatore who had always supported him. Through painting begins a reflection on death and decay (the small self-portraits). In 2000 he managed to return to the basement of Sesto San Giovanni where he isolated himself and worked hard. Abuse of psychoactive drugs and cigarettes forced him to multiple hospitalizations in psychiatric hospital between 2005 and 2016. In 2017 he moved to Piedmont cared for by his ex partner Vanna and his daughter Silvia because he could no longer live alone. He gets back to good health but in 2019 he suffers a heart attack and dies.